Drug Officials Arrested on Bribery Charges

Five officials of the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) have been arrested for allegedly accepting bribes and another was suspended from duty, the Economic Observer reported on Sunday.

The six officials had already been placed under shuanggui — a form of detention in which an official is asked to confess wrongdoing — for allegedly accepting bribes since last December, the report said.

The scandal surfaced after a report from a drug company said Wei Liang, an official from the drug registry department of the SFDA, allegedly accepted bribes of 1.5 million yuan ($221,000).

The investigation is still under way, and more people are likely to be involved in the case, an industry insider who did not want to be named was quoted as saying.